Good Reads

[srboone]

LibraryTing is seeing a boom in their business. people are buying lifetime accounts there left and right and deleting their GR accounts. I've purchased an LT account but have no intention of deleting my GR account. I'll probably maintain both until interest lags.

[srboone]

Most people are concerned about their work on buliding the site going for naught. They don't like their honest reviews being mixed with the reviews of Amazon which they perceive as dishonest. Some (including myself) have noticed that certain options in their profiles have been switched on--like Amazon being the preferred seller they buy from and partners of Goodreads being given access to their reviews. They also don't want to start receiving emails from advertisers on Amazon. They don't want to lose the privacy that Gr appears to provide them. Concerns are mixed as to the ebook side of the deal as not everybody has a Kindle.

[ozmosis7]

I think it's probably most likely to go untouched for a large period of time. It's generally how these social networking acquisitions go, unless the site is failing horribly (myspace). Then when we do see changes to it, I think they will probably be minor. Purchasing GoodReads won't do Amazon any good if they change everything around and alienate the user base.

Good points. I do wonder what will happen to Shelfari with this purchase, though. Will they incorporate the two somehow? Or abandon Shelfari? If nothing happens, no biggie, but they have an opportunity to improve things for sure.

[Dan Hocker]

I'm not really sure what to think of it yet. I had planned to do a giveaway of my series, but I guess I'll wait and see. I imagine it will end up somewhere between Goodreads and Shelfari (which they already own). That could be good, but I doubt they will support books from other sites, or at the very least they will likely keep the others from being promoted or something of that nature.

I think it's probably most likely to go untouched for a large period of time. It's generally how these social networking acquisitions go, unless the site is failing horribly (myspace). Then when we do see changes to it, I think they will probably be minor. Purchasing GoodReads won't do Amazon any good if they change everything around and alienate the user base.

[ozmosis7]

I'm not really sure what to think of it yet. I had planned to do a giveaway of my series, but I guess I'll wait and see. I imagine it will end up somewhere between Goodreads and Shelfari (which they already own). That could be good, but I doubt they will support books from other sites, or at the very least they will likely keep the others from being promoted or something of that nature.

[srboone]

Anybody have any thoughts on Amazon's acquisition of Good Reads? I'm not sure what to think, but I'm certain I've gotten the full spectrum of pros and cons from the 1600+ posts on GR's site.

[TJCams]

I've been reviewing everything I have read on there. I keep on entering ones that interest me too. One day it will happen.

[peteOcha]

I feel a win coming up for you TJ!

Try posting a few reviews, a couple sentences on the last few books you've read. You never know, it could help.

[TJCams]

It's not helping my cause Peter..... not at all.

[peteOcha]

I have a lot less to enter as well TJ, but no warehouse address to makeup for the missed entries!

[srboone]

I usually will browse through a list just tilI get to a particular ending date. For intsance, I've gone through the lists and entered giveaways for those ending on 15March (I tend to bet notified around 2:30 am of anything I've won). No need to got too crazy.

[TJCams]

I usually look for the entries that interest me, or whatever updates I get from yous all on here, then I will enter. Somehow yesterday, I found the first reads giveaways, which was 77 pages worth! Needless to say, I didn't go through every page, but did browse about 7 or 8, and entered quite a few. Hopefully one win would be nice. I usually won't enter if it doesn't interest me. Plus, being in Canada, the giveaways are less, yet I have my US work warehouse location listed as well, so that broadens my chances, however, if I get on a streak, my driver might want to strangle me!

[srboone]

Yeah I just won another book--turns out it's a YA book about the descendendants of holocaust survivors. Not sure what I thought it was about, but I'll give it a whirl. It's only 150 pages, so shouldn't take that long to read. Of course After I finish my current read of 700 pages.

I think I'm going to slow down for a bit, though I've got a lot entered through tomorrow.

[Sabrina Morgan]

Some guy claims to have made a bot that will enter every giveaway for that day. Would save a crap load of time, but I don't want to get just any book. I feel bad when I get a book that I entered for and it turns out to be a crappy romance!

[Martin]

I have decided to only review books I read recently. I also have decided to only enter giveaways for books that look like I would buy. I doubt I have entered over 40 giveaways. For now I will stick with that, I may change my plan at some point.

Willingness and actually doing it are two different things. You've written reviews on 4% of the books you've rated. Sabrina has rated 6%. I've rated 21%. So that theory may not actually hold much water. Maybe look for a give away that has a 10% chance or better of you winning, even if it's a book you may not be interested in. If you win, read it, rate it, and review it.

Or just do what I do and enter anything that seems even remotely interesting. I can weed through about 50 giveaways in 30 minutes and come up with 20-35 that look interesting enough to enter. Most of my wins have come in the "remotely intersting" category.